Seminars at FGG
Towards detecting terrestrial exoplanets via sub-m/s radial velocity measurements of the Sun using HARPS-N with astro-comb calibration
Speaker: David Phillips (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Date and time: 2015-03-25 11:30
We have recently demonstrated sub-m/s sensitivity in measuring the radial velocity between the Earth and Sun using a simple, home-built, 8 cm aperture, solar telescope feeding the HARPS-N spectrograph calibrated with the astro-comb. We plan in the coming year to use the solar telescope feeding HARPS-N to detect the solar radial velocity signal from Venus and demonstrate sensitivity of these instruments to detect terrestrial exoplanets. In this talk I will present initial, demonstration results from the prototype solar telescope showing sub-m/s performance and plans to automate both the solar telescope and the astro-comb to allow for daily operation so that a large data set of solar radial velocities may be obtained for studies of jitter and observing the signature of Venus in the solar radial velocity.